An digital archive on Eritrea and Ethiopia in particular and on the Horn of Africa, in general

Thursday, 5 February 2015

Fait Tinga Longhi, nicknamed “Fighting Gun” one the veterans for the independence of Eritrea

Fait Tinga Longhi (1912 - 1997)

ፋይድ ቲንጋ ሎንጊ

فايد تينغا
لونجي

Fait Tinga Longhi, nicknamed “Fighting Gun” one the veterans
for the independence of Eritrea

Short Biography:

Faid Tinga Longhi:

-Born in Gullu (Suzena) in
1912, from the family of the fraction Alummu, Cunama.

-Elected Representative at
the Eritrean Assembly, Married with Mamma Catta, one son.

-Enlisted in the Colonial
Troops Corps (1-V-1934) 2. Battalion, then

-Assigned to the Autonomous
Company, commanded by Captain Bongiorno in Agordat which became the 27th battalion.

-He participated in the
1935-36 campaign. From Agordat to Suzena in Tucul, across the Mareb and
participate in the fight of Addi kilt (28.03.1936); followed the destination to
Axum, Biacundi, Amba Bircutan, adi Remoz (Welkait) and Gondar (1937).

-He fought at the Battle of
the Bosa.

-Promotion to Buluqbash on
the field 10.11.1937, and to that of Mezza (Debre Marqos in March 1938 and of
Againti (Debre Tabor), in which he was seriously wounded and proposed for
promotion to Sciumbash and silver medal.

-Hospitalized, and then
under license convalescence, he was discharged on 1.04.1939 to Celga.

-Called back to the European
conflict, he was assigned with the 104th Battalion to Omhajer, where he stayed
until 01.06.1940, then for the entire war he scouted the Sudanese border, until
the Battalion was dissolved.

-Faid returned to the
country and dedicated himself to the cultivation of the plain of Tole Albibi.

-In November 1943, a
conflict arose with the Beni Amer population due to the question of grazing, an
armed gang attacked the village of Tole Albibi, killing one of his nephews,
another woman, a man and raiding livestock and burning houses

-Therefore, with a band of
58 other cunama he gave himself to banditary: they removed 160 cattle from a
Tribe of Beni Amer ad Adghennat (OBellet).

-They had a fight in
December 1943 with those and another with a detachment of 32 policemen

-About 12 Months later all
of them were arrested and tried;

-Faid Tinga was forgiven and
appointed as Gullu's sub clan chieftain, serving for the British Police
authority in various locations on the borders of the Cunama country with Serae
and towards Hamasien for the return of the Shifta.

-Following the bloody
contests between Cunama and Beni Amer in the area between Barentu and Gash
(1949-50), a band outside the law assaulted the countries of Gullu and Danca on
24.12.1950, plundering 89 people and killing 3 (Burning 173 Tucul 7,800
quintals of cereals, legumes and oil seeds, 700 heads of cattle, sheep, horses
and camels, plus 1800 shillings, were destroyed or plundered).

-Faid Tinga once again
returned to the bush with about thirty companions, and upon the request from
the authorities through Mohammed Badume Casu, He surrended on 25.03.1951 in Barentu.

The Kunama are a minority in Eritrea that have a unique
culture that they have maintained despite the hardships. They have lived in co-existence
with their immediate neighbours the Baria (Nara) and the Beni Amer. Both the ELF
and the EPLF had not been able to respect their culture and choices. Under the
PFDJ, even their existence is under threat. Their region has become a no-mans
land. They have been marginalized in their own land. The Late Dr. Alexander Naty,
a prominent Kunama scholar has written articles about their plight. One of his articles, ‘Environment,society and the state in southwestern Eritrea’ examines this issue in
detail.

The Kunama have the right to have their own administration under a
constitutionally federal arrangement in Eritrea. I not only support that, but I
even defend their right to self-determination, including and up to secession. We need to make unity attractive to all
Eritrean components, to make it work. Badume and Fayotingun Longhi were some of the prominent leaders of the
Kunama. This not is about Fait Tinga Longhi.

According to Jordan Gebre-Medhin, Fait Tinga Longhi, was one
of the most highly decorated men from the Kunama. He was born in Gulu, Suzenu
in the Kunama area , in the late 1910s. Though Christian to begin with, he
converted to Islam, in the 1940s. At that time, according to Trevaskis Kunama
had about 22,000 people of whom 3000 were Christians, 12000 Muslims and 7000
who believed in traditional beliefs. According to western sources then, the
Kunama region was sparsely populated partially because the Kunama had been
virtually wiped out by the Abyssinian and Beni Amer attacks. After 1860, the
Egyptians made a concerted effort to convert them to Islam while Swedish missionaries
worked to convert them to Christianity.

Between 1952 and 1962, Fait Tinga Longhi was elected
enthusiastically to represent the Kunama people of his district to the Eritrean
Parliament as an Anti-Unionist. At the end of the Federal arrangement he was
imprisoned several times by the Ethiopian Government for his pro-Eritrean work.
He was a political prisoner when the military regime came to power and he was
freed by the EPLF in 1974 when they stormed the prison in Asmara.

According to Alexander Naty, “In the past ethnic groups such
as the Kunama, Nara and Beni-Amer have predominantly inhabited the area. The Kunama and Nara belong to Nilo-Saharan
language family. The Beni-Amer is a Cushitic-speaking people. In recent times members of other Eritrean
ethnic groups such as the Saho and Tigrinnya have settled in the region. These communities have been mainly attracted
by the availability and fertility of the land and other economic opportunities.
Each of the indigenous groups (i.e. the Kunama, Nara and the BeniAmer) had a
specific territory that is recognised by tradition. The Kunama people refer to the land they
inhabit as Kunamalaga, which means Kunamaland.
Reflecting their matrilineal societal organisation, they also refer to
it as afa laga, which means the land of the maternal grandmother. Territories that are located adjacent to
river Gash and Setit belong to the Kunama traditionally. The Beni-Amer often grazed their livestock in
these localities. Their intermingling
with the Kunama of Sokodas has facilitated the settlement of the Beni-Amer in
some Kunama villages in the region."

"The Kunama society is organised along matriclan and
matrilineage line. The different
lineages constituting a clan own land.
Individuals who do not belong to the lineage or clan also can use the
land on usufractory basis. The land
cannot be sold or purchased. There are many clans in the Kunama society. These clans include kara, nataka, serma,
jula, sogona, lakka, akartakara, alaka and shila, among others. The number of clans differs from one region
to another. Some regions probably
because of the extent of population intermixing have more clans than
others. Each clan owns land that is
collectively used by clan members. This
ownership of land has been misunderstood by outsiders who often conceive the
Kunama as lacking a concept of ownership of land. "

"The Kunama believe that from the very
beginning, each clan had its own land.
Historically, clan members probably claimed land on “first-comer”
basis. There was also a tradition that
allowed clan members to acquire land that belonged to another clan. For example, if a lion or other animals kill
a person, the kinsmen of the deceased individual would claim the area where the
person was killed. Lands that are acquired in this way are referred to as
kokoba laga, which means “blood land.” End of quote.

According to Jordan, at about the age of 22, Longhi joined
the Italian army and by 1939 he became a native expert on the Shifta attacks on
the Italians in Ethiopia. In 1939, the Italians gave Longhi a bronze medal for
his services and promoted him to Shumbash, the highest ranking order,
awarded to Eritreans during that period. A few months later, for reasons that
are not known, he was dismissed from his colonial post and he went to his home
village. When the Italian army fighting against the British was facing defeat,
the Italians enlisted him again in their army as the head of a regiment of ‘native
battalions’.

On the memories of the Kunama towards Italian colonialism, Alexander Naty states that the Kunama give the Italians credit for bringing peace to the area. In fact they remember Italian colonial rule with some nostalgia. The Italian image of the Kunama somehow resonates that of the Kunama about themselves; they portrayed the Kunama as victims of slave raids by the Abyssinians. The positive attitude of the Kunama towards Italian rule is also related to the Italian policy of territorial and administrative delimitation, which took into consideration factors such as history and ethnicity. As a result, all Kunama were incorporated within the Gash-Setit administrative unit and indigenous customs were left intact.

When the Italians were defeated he went back to his home village
again. The state of anarchy that ensued in 1942 forced him to form a military band
of 58 to defend his community against
the raids of the Beni Amer and the Abyssinians. By 1943 the British established
a truce and Longhi and his men surrendered. When the provocations of the
Unionist Shifta activities increased in the region, he established one again a
peoples’ armed militia.

The immediate cause of the war between the Kunama and the
Beni Amer, prior to this new alliance was the breakdown of the migration and
settlement rule that had guided certain tribes of the Kunama and a section of
the Beni Amer. For some centuries, a section of the Beni Amer had migrated via
established routes to and from a dry weather encampment along the banks og the
Gash River. Because of population growth and social development, certain Beni
Amer began to settle permanently along the Gash River site. The Kunama angered by
this began to wage war and a civil war broke out. According to Jordan, this
explanation given by the British Military Administration (BMA) and the US
Consul in Asmara, defies logic and is not plausible.

According to Jordan, when the attacks of the
Unionists Shifta intensified both Hamid Idris Awate and Longhi formed militias to protect their people and attacked BMA police garrisons, ambushed police forces and attacked the
Ethiopian supported Shifta. Though Jordan claims they joined forces, various sources indicate that they were bitter enemies. In
the 1950 the BMA put a price on Longhi’s head, but it was only after the
British declaration of amnesty that he surrendered. He again returned to his native
village and was popularly elected to the Eritrean Parliament in 1952. He voted
on all issues with the Muslim League in the Parliament. He joined the ELF in
the late 70s but later switched to the EPLF. According to Jordan Gebre Medhin, Fayotingun
Longhi’s and Hamid Idris Awate’s peoples’ militias acted as prelude to the
modern armed struggle in 1961.

2 comments:

Your site looks to be very helpful for subjects that are quite obscure on the internet. I've been looking for information about this man. Through my searching I've discovered he's referred to by multiple names, including Fayid Tinga Longhi, Fait Tinga Longhi and Fayotingun Longhi. Most books refer to him as 'Fayotingun'. As I'd like to create a Wikipedia article about him, I'd like to get the correct name. Is there a reason why he is overwhelmingly referred to as Fayotingun, and is there a notable source for his alleged birth name 'Fait Tinga'? Also, is there a source referring to the exact dates of his birth and death?